"It's not enough to want to live," the voice wheezed.
Karnes was in what was left of the cargo hold, but his soft voice carried in the darkness. I knew then that my shot had landed; the wet sound of his breathing told me that I had hit a lung, at least.
"What are you going on about, Karnes?" I needed to keep the man speaking. The cargo hold was a vast, black cavern, and my ears were ringing from previous gunfire. It was impossible to see in the blackness of the hold, so my aim would be based on sound--the sound of a dying man's voice.
"You heard me, Jones," Karnes' voice lingered, a bit of an echo in the almost empty chamber. "It's not enough just to want to live in these times. You got to survive."
"What the hell does that even mean?" I felt exasperated. Karnes, about to die, waxed poetic. Just like every other dead man.
"What I mean, Jones, is that a body has to want to survive," Karnes' wheezing let me know that his lung was collapsing, compromising his breathing. "You've got to want to go on, to make something of yourself, to prosper, in spite of the world ending."
"So you're saying that if I want to survive I need to prosper?" I raised my gun; I almost had the man who killed my father.
"Not money, you dumb fool," Karnes' whispered irritation was weak in the darkness. "Didn't your father teach you a danged thing? Prospering ain't got a dang thing to do with money, and you dang well know it!"
"Yeah, I know it," I was perhaps a bit flippant. "You're dying, Karnes. You know it. Any last wishes?"
"I wish that you remember this conversation, you fool." Karnes' voice was almost a memory. "Your daddy would have wanted you to survive, no matter what. I want you to---"
I lowered my gun, grateful that I didn't have to aim in the dark.
Okay, so I'm trying to do two things at once. We will see how it goes.
That gives us a nice segue into our one-word prompt of the week. This week we want you to write on the third definition of survive
Write at the Merge
For this week, we’re giving you the song below and the word: Wish (and the song Past and Pending by the Shins)
